rioters bloc
10th December 2005, 07:42
so they put it on the agenda for the senate, took it off the agenda, deferred it til february, and then with 3 hours to go put it back on and passed it. i hate those fucking scumbag fuckers.
we had 3 actions against vsu yesterday - one in the morning [office occupation of liberal party headquarters] one at lunchtime [picket in front of the pm's office] and a very hastily organised but AWESOME demo in the afternoon in front of town hall [we managed to block traffic for a while :)] here are photos from the action: http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=43820
anyways, here are some news reports about it
Family vote clears way for uni bill
Stephanie Peatling
December 10, 2005
COMPULSORY student union fees at universities will be abolished from July 1 next year after the Federal Government secured the vote of the Family First Senator Steve Fielding for its legislation just minutes before Parliament rose for the year.
Senator Fielding remained adamant he did not make up his mind on the legislation until the Senate vote was taken at about 5.20pm yesterday, after less than two hours of debate.
"I voted on the substance of the bill," Senator Fielding said.
"I have not come to any arrangement with the Government. There is no deal."
He said his decision had been made considerably harder by the Senate's heavy legislative schedule but he was concerned about the financial strain compulsory fees placed on students.
He was satisfied services and facilities would continue on campuses in some form, regardless of the abolition of compulsory fees to support them.
However, Senator Fielding failed to quell speculation that he had done a deal with the Government after meeting the Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday morning. Senator Fielding would not discuss what happened at the meeting.
Asked whether the talks mentioned the abortion drug RU-486, Senator Fielding, who is on the committee examining a private member's bill on the drug, said: "I cannot recall."
The Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, said he and Mr Howard made the decision to force a vote on the legislation without knowing how Senator Fielding would vote.
His vote secured victory after the National Party senator Barnaby Joyce crossed the floor.
Senator Joyce supports voluntary student unionism but remains concerned that facilities and amenities at regional universities will suffer as a result of the legislation.
In order to ensure the support of wavering Coalition members the Government had to promise it would give universities $80 million over three years to help universities cope with the loss of compulsory fees. But Senator Joyce said he doubted the amount would be enough to keep open existing services.
The Opposition, Democrats and Greens decried the Government's tactics in keeping the Senate in effect on standby while the deal was done.
The leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Chris Evans, accused the Government of being "drunk on power".
The Australian Democrats education spokeswoman, Natasha Stott Despoja, said "democracy in this place [the Senate] is dead".
In the end less than two hours were spent debating the legislation after the Government used its numbers to force a vote.
The voluntary student unions legislation will finally become law when it passes the House of Representatives when it returns in February.
A QUESTION OF TIME
Time spent debating legislation in the Senate
Anti-terrorism 2hrs 19 mins
Welfare 2 hrs 34 mins
VSU Less than 2 hrs
And the filibuster…
Overseas universities operating here and overseas students' fees 3 hrs 30 mins
we had 3 actions against vsu yesterday - one in the morning [office occupation of liberal party headquarters] one at lunchtime [picket in front of the pm's office] and a very hastily organised but AWESOME demo in the afternoon in front of town hall [we managed to block traffic for a while :)] here are photos from the action: http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=43820
anyways, here are some news reports about it
Family vote clears way for uni bill
Stephanie Peatling
December 10, 2005
COMPULSORY student union fees at universities will be abolished from July 1 next year after the Federal Government secured the vote of the Family First Senator Steve Fielding for its legislation just minutes before Parliament rose for the year.
Senator Fielding remained adamant he did not make up his mind on the legislation until the Senate vote was taken at about 5.20pm yesterday, after less than two hours of debate.
"I voted on the substance of the bill," Senator Fielding said.
"I have not come to any arrangement with the Government. There is no deal."
He said his decision had been made considerably harder by the Senate's heavy legislative schedule but he was concerned about the financial strain compulsory fees placed on students.
He was satisfied services and facilities would continue on campuses in some form, regardless of the abolition of compulsory fees to support them.
However, Senator Fielding failed to quell speculation that he had done a deal with the Government after meeting the Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday morning. Senator Fielding would not discuss what happened at the meeting.
Asked whether the talks mentioned the abortion drug RU-486, Senator Fielding, who is on the committee examining a private member's bill on the drug, said: "I cannot recall."
The Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, said he and Mr Howard made the decision to force a vote on the legislation without knowing how Senator Fielding would vote.
His vote secured victory after the National Party senator Barnaby Joyce crossed the floor.
Senator Joyce supports voluntary student unionism but remains concerned that facilities and amenities at regional universities will suffer as a result of the legislation.
In order to ensure the support of wavering Coalition members the Government had to promise it would give universities $80 million over three years to help universities cope with the loss of compulsory fees. But Senator Joyce said he doubted the amount would be enough to keep open existing services.
The Opposition, Democrats and Greens decried the Government's tactics in keeping the Senate in effect on standby while the deal was done.
The leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Chris Evans, accused the Government of being "drunk on power".
The Australian Democrats education spokeswoman, Natasha Stott Despoja, said "democracy in this place [the Senate] is dead".
In the end less than two hours were spent debating the legislation after the Government used its numbers to force a vote.
The voluntary student unions legislation will finally become law when it passes the House of Representatives when it returns in February.
A QUESTION OF TIME
Time spent debating legislation in the Senate
Anti-terrorism 2hrs 19 mins
Welfare 2 hrs 34 mins
VSU Less than 2 hrs
And the filibuster…
Overseas universities operating here and overseas students' fees 3 hrs 30 mins